Excerpt: Stick

Present

The beginning is always hard. At least, that’s what everyone tells me. Before I got here, everyone said that starting to talk was hard. The beginning of the process was hard. Everything is hard. I don’t think like that though. You’re watching me like you know exactly what I’m going to say. Who knows, maybe you do. But maybe, just maybe, I’ll shock you. Just like I shocked everyone else.
“Did you know that goby fish starve themselves to avoid conflict?”
You raise your eyebrows. Obviously, I shocked you. “N-no, I didn’t know that.”
I smile. “That’s what I do.”